D&D Debuts Playtest for Psion Class

Wizards of the Coast is playtesting the Psion class for Dungeons & Dragons. Today, Wizards of the Coast provided a new Unearthed Arcana for the Psion, a new class for the current revised 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. The playtest includes base class rules plus four subclasses - the body-shifting Metamorph, the reality warping Psi Warper, the offensive-minded Psykinetic, and the Telepath.

The core mechanic of the Psion involves use of Psion Energy die. Players have a pool of energy dice that replenishes after a Long Rest, with the number and size of the dice determined by the Psion's level. These psion energy dice can either be rolled to increase results of various checks/saving throws or spent to fuel various Psion abilities.

While the Psion and psionics have a long tradition in D&D, they've only received a handful of subclasses in 5th Edition. If the Psion survives playtesting, it would mark the first time that Wizards of the Coast has added a new character class to D&D since the Artificer. Notably, the Psion and psionics are also heavily associated with Dark Sun, a post-apocalyptic campaign setting that many considered to be off the table for Fifth Edition due to the need to update parts of the setting to bring it current with modern sensibilities. However, the introduction of Wild talent feats (which replaces some Origin feats tied to backgrounds with psion-themed Feats) in the UA seems to suggest that Dark Sun is back on the table.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm going to assume all you town guards kill on sight.

Why?

 

[GarrettKP]

You know... at this point I think with everyone getting so bent out of shape about all of this junk related to the Psion and psionics, I think it's best that we all vote 'Red' on the upcoming survey and kill psionics once again. Obviously people can't handle having it in the game.

I’m voting Green now and making 1000 bot accounts to vote green just to spite this post.

 

[R_J_K75]

The 5e realms book is being done by Ed Greenwood. The writing of it and the lore should be good.

Generally though after WOTC attempts at DL, and spell jammer being skeptical is warranted.

I'm ok with letting things be shelved. I'd rather Wheel of Time and Witcher series never manifested rather than give them to show runners that wanted to tell their own stories rather than adapt them properly.

I did not know the new FR is being written by Ed Greenwood. Thats good news. Theres a passage, or passages in the 2E "Secrets of the Magister", In it he uses...heartstop and dung shovel on the same page. Brilliant.

 

[Maxperson]

They are. Yup. This is one of the hurdles they have to jump, and would've had to jump when it was the Mystic. I'm not saying it's insurmountable. Just that it's a problem.

As far as the Weave, that was more about how they've made ALL MAGIC (including Psionic 'Magic') dependent on the presence of the Weave of Mystra. Which doesn't really work for Dark Sun, where arcane magic defiles the world and siphons life out of it to power spellcraft, but psionics explicitly doesn't because that power is from within yourself.

It's a huge part of the narrative conceit of the setting.

... I mean you could certainly make that setting and slap that name on it. But it wouldn't be Dark Sun.

I'd REALLY love that... I just see it as another obstacle they have to overcome.

It can be modified, removed, or kept... but it is still a stumbling block. Something for people to debate in the writer's room. Some on one side thinking it's indefensible, others thinking it could be kept as is, and others trying to argue a middle ground of changing it.

None of these obstacles are insurmountable. They're just a variety of points that combine to make a bigger overall problem, is my argument.

In favor in pop culture... but are they in favor with the D&D community, -specifically-? Marvel characters are in favor in pop culture to the tune of billions of dollars of licensing rights for Spider-Man. That doesn't mean the average 5e players who has only really engaged with various high fantasy settings wants WotC to release a Marvel Superheroes setting where Wolverine is the Iconic Barbarian and they're eager to buy the book the day it drops.

Will it be popular with their current consumer base in the context of the game itself is still a big question, even if other social indicators hint at a relative popularity in the cultural zeitgeist.

They kinda do... but also they really don't.

If whatever's popular outside of D&D were brought into D&D because it was popular we'd have a very different selection of campaign settings and books released. Instead, we see WotC cleaving close to high fantasy in everything.

Lemme demonstrate it differently. Here's the top 15 books according to AlphaStream's article from September 2023 found here: How D&D Sells and What It Means for the Hobby

This is based on the Bookscan data revealed here:

As you can see, Curse of Strahd and Eberron: Rising from the Last War are the two campaign settings on the top 15 list and sold, between the two of them, about 290,000 copies. Out of the 1.5 million people who owned a PHB by 2023.

Wildemount is down in the 110k range. Ravnica is at the 100k range with Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. I watched them scroll down to the 40k range and didn't see Theros.

Granted: This is only the numbers for big box stores and not direct sales or digital downloads, so there's definitely more sales of EVERYTHING on this list.

Settings don't sell that well. Just as a general rule. Because the target audience of a setting is a DM. And DMs make up a much smaller portion of the market.

Then you have the barrier that a lot of DMs make up their own settings. Some might buy other settings for examples or to steal stuff, but that still shrinks your potential market even further.

THEN you get into the popularity of Post Apocalyptic stuff compared to high fantasy. And as we can see, above, high fantasy (Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Tasha's, Xanathar's) blows Gothic Horror Fantasy and Magepunk fantasy out of the water. So unless there's a secret trigger word on Post Apocalyptic Fantasy which activates most DMs in a Winter Soldier style purchasing frenzy, that market is going to be significantly smaller than the Forgotten Realms audience.

Are they going to release a Dark Sun setting book? Definitely possible. I think we'll probably see it with a bunch of character options tied to it, rather than a single standalone setting book to try and get a wider audience of players to grab a copy so they can access the Psion class or whatever else is in the book.

But it's a hurdle that they'll need to clear. Another complication in a list of complications. That's what I'm saying.

Wait? He says pretty much the same things I did in pretty much the same way I did, but I was chastised by you and he got a normal response? That seems more than a little hypocritical to me.

 

[Maxperson]

Perhaps I missed but how is magic dependent on the Weave of Mystra? I mean she doesn't even exist in my setting!

It's not. @Steampunkette is mistaken about what 5e said about the Weave. There no such magical dependance unless 5.5e added it in for some strange reason. Accessing magic through life energies is right in line with what the various "Weaves" can do.

Seriously though:

• I don't see any reference to the Weave in the PHB Chapter 7: Spells (I didn't check every spell though).
• I don't see any reference to the Weave in the Wizard class description. It simply refers you to Chapter 7 (see above)
• The Weave is not included in the DMG "Lore Glossary" or anywhere else I can see.
• There is no mention of the Weave in the MM spellcasting description. I did not check every monster's lore but there was no mention of the Weave in the lore of: Arch-hags, mages (apprentice - archmage), or the lich.

So how exactly is WotC making all magic dependent on the Weave? From what I can see it has no impact on how magic is used in 5e24.

It's mentioned in the 5e PHB on page 205. The idea is that magic suffuses everything and mortals can't access it directly, so they have to access it through something else and in varied ways. In the FR it's through the Goddess Mystra, but that's only in the FR.

 

[Maxperson]

Adding the "weave" to Dark Sun is trivial, IMO, and wouldn't change the setting overmuch. All you have to do is explain how defiling and preserving affect the weave.

Not including the weave in a new 5E Dark Sun is also trivial, even without the fact they've already removed it from the 2024 core books.

I would be surprised if WotC described the arcane magic of a reimagined Dark Sun as the "weave" . . . but if they did, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

You don't even need to add it. The interface to the "weave" there is life energies for standard magic, but since casters interface in different ways, psions would just do it through themselves and their own minds. There's no need to add anything or have anything named the "weave" or anything else. Casters on Dark Sun may not care or even know about what happens past drawing upon life energies.

 

[Steampunkette]

Wait? He says pretty much the same things I did in pretty much the same way I did, but I was chastised by you and he got a normal response? That seems more than a little hypocritical to me.

Not really.

With you it's been a continuing problem that has caused arguments through your dismissive attitude.

With him it's just not that kind of relationship, yet. He may get there. He might not. But everyone gets some chances before I put my foot down.

You've just already run through yours between various threads.

 

[Maxperson]

You know... at this point I think with everyone getting so bent out of shape about all of this junk related to the Psion and psionics, I think it's best that we all vote 'Red' on the upcoming survey and kill psionics once again. Obviously people can't handle having it in the game.

I'm not seeing what you are seeing. I've seen some folks here getting bent out of shape over Dark Sun, but the discussions and thoughts about the psion class itself, both pros and cons, have been pretty tame.

 

[mamba]

You must've hated the Clerics and Druids back in 2e that also ignored Preserving and Defiling, then, too, I guess?

Druids fell into the preserver niche for me, and clerics never really bothered me, maybe because they existed in other settings as well whereas psionics was something I only encountered in Dark Sun and maybe as a result it did feel like they were specifically added so we could have our cake and eat it too (magic without the downsides of defiling / preserving)

 

[Micah Sweet]

They are. Yup. This is one of the hurdles they have to jump, and would've had to jump when it was the Mystic. I'm not saying it's insurmountable. Just that it's a problem.

As far as the Weave, that was more about how they've made ALL MAGIC (including Psionic 'Magic') dependent on the presence of the Weave of Mystra. Which doesn't really work for Dark Sun, where arcane magic defiles the world and siphons life out of it to power spellcraft, but psionics explicitly doesn't because that power is from within yourself.

It's a huge part of the narrative conceit of the setting.

... I mean you could certainly make that setting and slap that name on it. But it wouldn't be Dark Sun.

I'd REALLY love that... I just see it as another obstacle they have to overcome.

It can be modified, removed, or kept... but it is still a stumbling block. Something for people to debate in the writer's room. Some on one side thinking it's indefensible, others thinking it could be kept as is, and others trying to argue a middle ground of changing it.

None of these obstacles are insurmountable. They're just a variety of points that combine to make a bigger overall problem, is my argument.

In favor in pop culture... but are they in favor with the D&D community, -specifically-? Marvel characters are in favor in pop culture to the tune of billions of dollars of licensing rights for Spider-Man. That doesn't mean the average 5e players who has only really engaged with various high fantasy settings wants WotC to release a Marvel Superheroes setting where Wolverine is the Iconic Barbarian and they're eager to buy the book the day it drops.

Will it be popular with their current consumer base in the context of the game itself is still a big question, even if other social indicators hint at a relative popularity in the cultural zeitgeist.

They kinda do... but also they really don't.

If whatever's popular outside of D&D were brought into D&D because it was popular we'd have a very different selection of campaign settings and books released. Instead, we see WotC cleaving close to high fantasy in everything.

Lemme demonstrate it differently. Here's the top 15 books according to AlphaStream's article from September 2023 found here: How D&D Sells and What It Means for the Hobby

This is based on the Bookscan data revealed here:

As you can see, Curse of Strahd and Eberron: Rising from the Last War are the two campaign settings on the top 15 list and sold, between the two of them, about 290,000 copies. Out of the 1.5 million people who owned a PHB by 2023.

Wildemount is down in the 110k range. Ravnica is at the 100k range with Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. I watched them scroll down to the 40k range and didn't see Theros.

Granted: This is only the numbers for big box stores and not direct sales or digital downloads, so there's definitely more sales of EVERYTHING on this list.

Settings don't sell that well. Just as a general rule. Because the target audience of a setting is a DM. And DMs make up a much smaller portion of the market.

Then you have the barrier that a lot of DMs make up their own settings. Some might buy other settings for examples or to steal stuff, but that still shrinks your potential market even further.

THEN you get into the popularity of Post Apocalyptic stuff compared to high fantasy. And as we can see, above, high fantasy (Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Tasha's, Xanathar's) blows Gothic Horror Fantasy and Magepunk fantasy out of the water. So unless there's a secret trigger word on Post Apocalyptic Fantasy which activates most DMs in a Winter Soldier style purchasing frenzy, that market is going to be significantly smaller than the Forgotten Realms audience.

Are they going to release a Dark Sun setting book? Definitely possible. I think we'll probably see it with a bunch of character options tied to it, rather than a single standalone setting book to try and get a wider audience of players to grab a copy so they can access the Psion class or whatever else is in the book.

But it's a hurdle that they'll need to clear. Another complication in a list of complications. That's what I'm saying.

Are they still doing the Weave thing in 5.5?